Tonight Again
by APinkRose
Summary: A Liesel/Max songfic featuring Tonight, Not Again by Jason Mraz. Song lyrics are in italics and dispersed throughout the story. I heard this song the other day and realized that it is perfect for them.


Liesel and Max were destined to fall in love. It happened slowly, with a tenderness not marked by lust. They were drawn together by a magnet, by the nightmares, by the memory of pain. They spent night after night in Herr Steiner's small apartment, with Liesel in her bed and Max on the couch, until they were reunited by the nightmares.

_The night. She brushed her hands upon my flushed cheek. Smelled of childhood remnants of a dusty weeping willow. _

Liesel, night after night, dreamt of her brother, of Mama, Papa, and Rudy. Max, night after night, revisited Dachau. Names those long gone would be screamed out in the middle of the night. Liesel didn't blame Herr Steiner for moving a cot into his shop at night, if only to escape the screams. A particularly bad night, Liesel was roused from her own nightmare by the sound of Max's cries. She tried desperately to comfort him, to call him out of the cloudiness of a dream, by brushing her hands upon his face. He awoke, sweating and crying, to see a grey book thief with the eyes of a child.

_Clouds soothe, shredded by the calico. Were oh so vast and quick as I was on my own now. _

Their nighttime visits to each other were short, with a mere awakening and quick departure once the other was coherent. Max's cheeks burned where the word shaker's hands had just been. He knew she departed quickly not because she wanted to, but because she knew Max's thoughts on their relationship and propriety. He lied awake, before the nightmares came to claim him again, this time dreaming of a little girl in a basement, making a snowman.

_This time like every other time I believe that I never find, another sweet little girl with sequined sea foam eyes. Ocean lapping voice smile coy as the brightest quiet span of sky. And I'm all alone again tonight, not again, not again, not again._

This time, when Max evaded the nightmare's grasp, Liesel wasn't there. Instead Liesel was in the midst of her own nightmares. He quickly went to her, returning the favor by placing his bony hands on her face, her cheek, her hair. Max savored these moments, where he could close his eyes and pretend they were not this broken. That he had met her in a different lifetime, where they could be together, whole and clean. Max craved her touch, her voice, her stares.

_And don't it feel alright, and don't it feel so nice. Lovely._

She sat up, startled, with tears and ghosts in her eyes. Max was again reminded of the circumstances, that he was an old man aged by demons, and she was a young girl who's innocence was taken too soon by death.

_Still I'm unable to inhale all the riches. As I'm awkward as a wound on my bones. Still I've got cobblestone joints and plate glass points. _

Neither of them spoke, the only sounds in the dark bedroom Liesel's ragged breathing. With a grimace, Max soothed her hair down, and wished he could take away her nightmares.

_And don't it feel alright. And don't it feel so nice. Lovely._

This pattern continued, for weeks. Liesel could feel the growing connection to this man, who had once been hidden in her basement. She ached for him, for his comfort, for him to be by his side all the time. His nightmares had been only getting worse. That was when she decided.

_Well if you should nervously breakdown. When it's time for the shakedown, would you take it?_

She found herself standing over him on the couch, smoothing his hair like feathers. She leaned down, and kissed his eyelids, his nose, his cheeks, and eventually his mouth. He awoke, confused, and instead of speaking, she merely kissed him again. Max began to speak, to voice all the concerns, all the reasons he was trying to remind himself that this wasn't right. She silenced him again, "Please Max. Let me love you."

_It's when you cry just a little, but you laugh in the middle, that you've made it. And don't it feel alright. And don't it feel so nice. Lovely._

And with the lingering nightmare tears in his eyes, Max leaned forward to kiss the eager lips of the only person he had left, and the only person he knew he could never live without. "Liesel" he whispered against her lips, "l love you. I love you so much".

_Say it again. Lovely. So lovely. To do it again. Again. Loving again. It's coming again. Lovely._


End file.
